When a person's heart needs to be defibrillated and converted to restore the heart beat, or when a person's heart needs to be paced to insure a rhythmic heart beat, or when a person's lungs need to be ventilated to restore breathing, sure definitive steps must be taken with rapidity, ease, and the least trauma to the patient. Methods for performing these techniques developed by applicant as sole or joint inventor are disclosed in earlier U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,206 entitled DEFIBRILLATING AND PACING THE HEART, U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,807 entitled METHOD OF APPARATUS FOR PACING THE HEART EMPLOYING EXTERNAL AND INTERNAL ELECTRODES, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,890 entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLED BREATHING EMPLOYING INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL ELECTRODES. The disclosures of these earlier patents are incorporated herein by reference. All of these techniques depend on an internal esophageal electrode as the basic electrode, with other electrodes placed on the chest of the patient to establish an electrical pathway for the technique to be used. It is with this in mind that the present invention of a multiple ringed internal esophageal electrode was made.